Nine is the Loneliest Number
by Timmy22222001
Summary: Here's another fic for you Brad x Jenny fans out there!  What starts out as something small with Jenny and Brad is going to be turned into something big, trust me.  Regardless, enjoy chapter 1 and please leave me a review.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:**I do not own any of the characters or anything else from My Life As A Teenage Robot created by Nickelodeon. This fic is only meant for entertainment and nothing else.

**Note: **The markings of, "(" and, ")"represent any characters actions, just so you know.

**Nine is the Loneliest Number**

**Chapter 1**

**By Timmy22222001**

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!" screamed a small child as darted towards the safety of some nearby bushes, "The demon beast has returned, flee for your lives!"

Before the boy could get another step closer to his sanctuary, he was all of a sudden halted by a tall, dark figure in front of him. After looking up to the gargantuan, the boy's skin turned white and his mouth went completely dry.

"Prepare to meet your end." spoke the dark figure to the boy.

The boy immediately turned tail and ran in the opposite direction as fast as he could. Still continuing his screams for help, the boy dared not to look back in hopes that he was outrunning the beast.

Finally making his way to an oak tree, the boy used whatever strength his legs had left, jumped onto the trunk of the tree, and climbed up as fast as he could. After making his way into the top part of the tree, the boy grabbed some of the nearby branches, pulled them over himself, and waited.

At first the child heard nothing around him except the birds in the air and wind as it rustled the green leaves, but then he heard clinking and clanking noises again.

His teeth began chattering and his body was already starting to shake, the boy knew for sure that he was to be noticed by his predator. Quickly putting his hand over his mouth and covering himself with more branches, the lad tried everything he could to be less noticeable. But yet, the approaching steps just kept growing louder and louder with every passing moment. Before the boy knew it, the haunting noise had stopped, and everything was back to being quiet again.

_(Looks down to the ground) Oooooohhhhh boy, this is really bad here._

Just before the child could make another move, the tree had begun to shake like mad all the while a voice from below could be heard saying, "Found you!"

Falling to the ground and then landing in a rather small bush the boy got back up to his feet and darted towards a nearby house. Once again, just before he could reach the door, he was all of a sudden stopped, but this time it had grabbed the back of his shirt.

Still trying to run despite being held up in the air, the boy continuously screamed for help while the dark figure let out another laugh.

"Surely you cannot escape me now little one, prepare to meet thy maker." said the figure to small boy.

"Not so fast," screamed a mysterious human figure, "let down my fellow ally you vile cretin!"

The gargantuan turned its head towards the other human and replied, "Never foolish knight! For I have already won this battle, and there is nothing you can do to stop me."

"Oh really," said the knight as he pulled out his sword and shield, "prepare yourself for battle!"

The tall figure laughed and pulled out a large weapon of its own and answered, "I hope you do not break too easily."

"We shall see." said the knight as he readied himself to charge the beast.

Just before either of them could make another move, the young boy all of a sudden yelled, "Wait!"

"TUCK!" replied Brad as he pulled off the bucket that he had on his head, "What is it now."

Tuck grabbed his crotch, crossed his legs, and answered, "Baaaattthhhrooooommmm!"

Jenny transformed back into her regular teenage form and asked, "What?"

Tuck legs began to twitch back and forth as he repeated, "Bathroom! Bathroom, bathroom, bathroom! Oh please I need to use the facilities!"

"You'd better let him down Jenny," said Brad, "I don't think it would be wise to mess with Tuck and his small bladder."

Jenny rolled her eyes and let Tuck down to the ground, "Tuck this had to be the fourth…"

"Fifth," said Brad.

"Right, fifth time you've done this now, what's wrong with you anyways?" said Jenny.

"I'll tell you what's wrong," said Brad as he pointed to the nearby table, "it looks like someone got into all the soda drinks before us."

Tuck smiled and replied, "But I was so thirsty. I couldn't help but drink every one of them to the last refreshing drop!"

Jenny paused for a moment and said, "You do know Tuck that one of those drinks on the table was my oil container right?"

"Ummmmmmm," answered Tuck as he looked over at the empty container of oil of the ground.

"Tuck, what were you thinking!" replied Brad, "That stuff is highly toxic!"

Tuck screamed for a moment with his legs still crossed, "I didn't know! Besides, I really have to pee now, will that do!"

Jenny grabbed Tuck and said, "It won't work now Tuck, it's already too late for you!"

"Too late!" replied Tuck as he continued his dance, "Isn't there anything that I can do!"

Brad and Jenny looked at each other for a moment and then Brad replied, "Well there Tuck, there is one thing that might work."

"Please tell me Brad, I don't want to expire because of soda!" yelled Tuck.

"Alright," said Brad as he put his arms on Tuck's shoulders, "You have to listen to each one of these steps very carefully, you got me?"

Tuck nodded continuously and Brad continued, "Good, now the first thing you have to do it to go up into bathroom."

As Tuck tried to turn around, Brad grabbed Tuck's shoulder, spun him around and replied, "Not yet Tuck, you have to let me finish!"

"Okay," answered Tuck, "but please hurry Brad, I can't hold it any longer."

"Alright," said Brad, "Next turn on the water from the faucet in the sink, bathtub, and don't forget to turn on the shower too. After that, turn off all the lights in the room and then stand in there for at least 2 hours!"

"And…..and!" said Tuck as his ballerina melody with his feet turned to a speedy Riverdance.

"And whatever you do Tuck, under no circumstance are you allowed to actually use the toilet." replied Brad.

"But why?" asked Tuck.

"Because," said Jenny, "the……uhh…..water will absorb all the……emmm….chemicals in your body so you won't get hurt!"

"Right Jen," replied Brad, "and if do decide to use the toilet, the oil will be stuck in your body and you'll end up like your past goldfish, Winston!"

Tuck let out a faint squeak and finally said, "Not like Winston! Fine, I'll do it!"

With that Tuck pulled himself away from Brad grip and darted inside the house screaming, "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!"

Brad and Jenny stood outside with their faces up to the upstairs window in Brad's washroom and listened as Tuck turned on the faucets and then turned off the lights. Still standing outside, Brad and Jenny slowly turned toward each other, and after seeing the grin formed on each others face, they immediately burst out laughing.

Jenny fell to the ground with her legs in the air trying to speak amidst her laughter, "I can't…..believe Tuck……fell for it!"

Brad had been holding his stomach also trying to catch his breath and then answered, "Neither can I!"

After a few more minutes of laughter, Brad and Jenny wiped the tears from their eyes, stood back up, and smiled at each other.

"Good one Brad," said Jenny as she gave Brad a small punch in the arm, "you think Tuck learnt his lesson from all of this."

"Actually," replied Brad as he pointed to the upstairs window, "I think he's still learning from it."

Jenny looked up again at the window and immediately she heard Tuck yelling, "WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BURN SO MUCH! WHHHHHHYYYYY!"

Jenny started laughing again while Brad went and picked up the soda bottles on the table, "Thanks for bringing the empty oil can Jen."

"Anytime Brad," said Jenny as she picked up the can, "anytime."

_Good old Brad, I'm glad that has still never changed._

Despite all the people Jenny had ever met from the Killgore all the way down to the Teen Team, she was always most fondest of Brad. Had it not been for him or Tuck, Jenny would have never left the outskirts of her room, unless it was to save the world.

But no matter wherever she went, or what she did, being next with Brad always gave her a pleasant feeling of both warmth and comfort. Jenny of course didn't exactly know why these feelings seemed to appear, but she always thought it to be an error in programming and nothing more.

Brad had already finished tossing the soda bottles in the recycle bin and noticed that Jenny had her eyes fixed on him.

"Ummmm Jenny," said Brad as he waved his hand a bit, "something wrong?"

Jenny snapped back to reality, and immediately replied, "Sorry Brad, I didn't mean to stare."

"No problem Jen," replied Brad as he scratched his head, "for second there I thought there was something on me."

Jenny returned with a small smile on her face and said, "Well, good having fun with you Brad, see you tomorrow at school."

"Right see you then Jen," said Brad.

Just before Jenny could make another step towards the door she turned around and said in a giggly tone, "And be sure to fill me on the details with Tuck, okay?"

Brad shook his head with a smirk and replied, "To the last minute."

Jenny waved Brad goodbye and headed out the door. Brad made his way over to the window and watched as Jenny made her way across the street. Brad made a deep sigh and turned towards the kitchen table where he saw that a small yellow note that had been posted.

_Dear Brad, your father and I have some business in Europe to take care of. Sorry we had to leave so suddenly, but our head offices called it an emergency. Please keep an eye on your brother, use the credit card we left to order takeout, and emergency numbers are posted next to the telephone. We will try to call you as soon as we get a chance, so take care. -Mom_

Brad put the note back down on the table and let out another deep sigh.

Brad and Tuck had always been stuck in an awkward situation like this before, many times over. Brad's parents were of course the business type of people that never got around to spending a lot of time with their family, and of course this sometimes created problems.

It was of course never their parent's fault, for Tuck and Brad both knew that their parents loved them dearly and they always hated it when they had to leave to some far off place. Yet with the unfortunate luck of their parents having so much work to do, Brad and Tuck were lucky enough to see both their parents come home for a day.

After checking the fridge for any leftovers, Brad grabbed a telephone book, and made his way to the phone when he suddenly bumped into something small. Looking down at the ground he saw that it was the empty oil can Jenny had. Placing it on the counter along with the telephone book, Brad sat himself on the chair near the telephone and fixed his sight on the ceiling.

_I wish Jenny would have stayed here a bit longer, I really don't like nights like this._

Just then Brad heard Tuck yell, "AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"

_I really wish I had someone else here._

Brad had thought a lot about Jenny, but he could never really get a clear answer. Parts of his mind would always enter cruel thoughts like, "she'd never like you," then other times, "she a robot, try getting a real girl", and many other random thoughts. This usually left Brad in a confused state than he originally started with, but with all that he had thought done, he still enjoyed her company more than anything else.

All of sudden Brad felt a sharp pain in his right leg, and when he looked down he saw that it was Tuck who had struck the blow.

_Oh boy..._

"So is there a reason for you kicking me Tuck, or am I just a kick-in-the-leg guy here?" said Brad.

"You mister!" said Tuck as he pointed his finger at Brad, "You and your evil plans! I should have realized that it was all a hoax after I used the toilet three times! I will never forgive you for this maniacal and unruly joke, ever!"

"Oh come on Tuck," replied Brad as he put his hand on Tuck's head, "Jenny and I were just having some fun. At least you didn't……"

"Up-bah-bah-bum" said Tuck as he waved his right hand, "I still don't think that there is anything that can be done now to fix this catastrophe!"

Brad raised one of his eyebrows and said, "Oh really?"

"Yes!" replied Tuck with both of his arms crossed over.

Brad shook his head and said, "Tuck what about the time you used my antique comic book collection to clean the furnace?"

"They were old and musty, I thought they would make a perfect cloth." said Tuck.

"Oh?" answered Brad, "and let us not forget the time when you accidentally glued one of mom's China plates to my face.

"I swear the super glue container was closed!" said Tuck.

Brad stared at his brother for another couple of minutes until Tuck said, "Alright maybe that one time, but yet I still refuse to give into this immoral deed! I assure you that I will never forget something as horrible as this till the end of time!"

Brad sat there for another moment, rolled his eyes, grabbed the phone and said, "How would you settle for some Dairy King?"

Tuck paused only for a brief moment before running around in little circles cheering, "Dairy King! Dairy King! Dairy King!"

Brad shook his head and smiled. As soon as Brad attempted grabbed the phonebook and look for the number, Tuck stopped and asked, "Where's mom and dad?"

"Business thing again Tuck," said Brad, "looks like we got the house to ourselves again."

Tuck nodded for a moment and stood silently until he began running around the kitchen floor screaming for Dairy King again.

Brad shook his head once more and began dialing the number.

**Meanwhile at Jenny's House,**

Jenny had already made herself comfortable upstairs with a Fashion Girl magazine when she heard the front door open from downstairs. After putting down her magazine and making her way to the top of the stairs Jenny saw that it was her mom who had just come home.

Just as Mr. Wakeman was taking off her coat, she noticed Jenny from the corner of her eye and said, "Oh X-J-Nein, how did everything go today with Tuck and Bradley?"

Jenny smiled for a moment and then answered, "We all had a great time mom, and how did the science convention thingy go?"

"Find dear, just fine." she replied.

Jenny made her way down the stairs and asked, "Mom, I was wondering…."

"Would you be a sport X-J-Nein and help me with my trophy here?" said Ms. Wakeman as she pointed to the large golden trophy in the backseat of the car.

"Sure mom," said Jenny as she went outside to the car.

After grabbing the trophy from its comfortable spot in the backseat, Jenny turned her head towards Brad's house, let out a small sigh, and lowered her head down a bit.

Before Jenny could think, or say anything, her brief solitude was all of a sudden halted from the call of her mother, "X-J-Nein! What is ever taking you so long?"

"Coming mom," said Jenny in an annoyed tone, "I was busy with something!"

Ms. Wakeman shook her head and said to herself, "Teenagers."

Once Jenny made it back into the house with the award she asked, "Hallway closet?"

Ms. Wakeman nodded her head and opened the door to small room. Having to almost force the trophy into the closet, Jenny followed up by quickly slamming the door shut to make sure that none if the other thousands of awards would slip out.

_And she thinks my room is messy._

"Good, now let's see what's left of the Chinese food in the fridge." said Jenny's mom in a rather excited tone. "Hopefully you didn't eat it all X-J-Nein." laughed Ms. Wakeman as she made her way into the kitchen with Jenny right behind her.

"You're a riot mom." replied Jenny.

After Ms. Wakeman had finished re-cooking her leftover food, Jenny sat herself down next to her mom and asked, "Mom, about my question?"

"Oh I'm sorry dear, what seems to be bothering you?" answered Ms. Wakeman.

Twiddling her thumbs for a few moments, Jenny summed up her courage and asked, "Mom, do I have to ability to feel and respond to emotions?" Jenny's mom dropped her chopsticks and began to laugh, while Jenny stood up and said in a quiet tone and said in a depressed tone, "Never mind."

Ms. Wakeman grabbed Jenny's arm, and after drying her tears she responded, "Of course you do X-J-Nein, whatever reason made you think you couldn't?"

Jenny put her metal hands up in front of her mom face and said, "Well….."

"Oh come on now X-J-Nein," answered Ms Wakeman as she pushed Jenny's hands back to her, "do you honestly think I would be so heartless as to not install an emotion grid into my own robotic daughter?"

Jenny sat herself back down and replied, "I never knew that."

Ms. Wakeman laughed for a moment before saying, "Remember the time your principal asked me come to your school and do a presentation about you to all of your little friends?"

"Don't remind me." said Jenny as she rolled her eyes.

"See," said Ms. Wakeman, "You just used regret and annoyance, a few of the many emotions, just like humans, that I allowed you to feel and show."

"I guess I never really realized it till now, sorry mom." replied Jenny with an awkward face.

Ms. Wakeman smiled and said, "Not worry X-J-Nein, I think its perfectly natural for any robot to ask a question like that. As for emotions, I gave you the entire set. Going all the way from 'a' to 'z', I was able to give you every emotion known to mankind."

Ms. Wakeman paused for a moment and scratched her chin, "Except alien emotions, some of those are just odd (shudder)."

Jenny had felt great from her chat with her mother, but before she could thank her and go back upstairs, Ms. Wakeman stood up from her seat and asked, "Now one last thing X-J-Nein, if you don't mind?"

"Sure," replied Jenny as she stopped to turn around.

Ms. Wakeman sighed for a moment and finally answered, "You do know that you have the ability to feel love don't you X-J-Nein?"

"Love?" answered Jenny in amazement, "Do you really mean that mom?"

"Well," said Ms. Wakeman, "that's why I think you came to ask me about your emotions, isn't that right?"

Jenny felt a small trembling in her throat for a moment and said, "Yeah I guess."

Ms. Wakeman formed a small smile on her face and patted her hand on Jenny's before saying, "Is there someone special that you've felt feelings towards?"

Jenny's face flashed bright red for a moment, and after she calmed herself down she replied, "Well, I've been kind of hoping that he might like me."

"That's wonderful X-J-Nein," replied Jenny's mother, "I'm sure a boy like Sheldon would suit you fine!"

Jenny immediately pulled herself back from her mother and answered, "Sheldon, mom? Eww, gross!"

"Well he does seem to have a lot of skill with robot maintenance, and really enjoys following you around. I think he would be absolutely perfect for you X-J-Nein!"

"X-J-Nein?" said Ms. Wakeman as she looked around in the empty kitchen with Jenny no where in sight.

_I knew I should have installed that tracker, sigh._

After making her way up the stairs, Jenny shuddered once more of the thought of her and Sheldon and decided it was time for bed. Once Jenny had made herself comfortable in her bed covers, Jenny shifted herself so she could face the window and began to look out at the night sky.

_Love...am I actually capable of it? I mean I've seen it many times before, but I always thought it was more of a human thing than...well...me I guess. Maybe mom was just making that part up, just so I would feel better. And besides, who would ever want to love something like me?_

**The Next Day,**

So there sat the object that had toyed with Jenny and as well as every other student from Tremorton High for the past few weeks. A simple piece of paper along with some colorful scribbles had been placed on large bulletin board, but even in its simplicity it still spelt panic for every student.

_Tremorton Annual School Dance_

_Grab yourself a date and prepare for a romantic night!_

_Girls get choosing, guys get to looking good, and make sure everyone gets a date!_

_Certainly an experience you won't soon forget! _

_Next Saturday, School Gymnasium, 5:00pm – 12:0am_

_Romantic music along with drinks and food included, hope to see you there!_

Just before Jenny could continue her way to class, her path had been blocked by none other than the Crust cousins.

"So Jennifer I see you were eyeing the school dance poster, weren't you?" asked Brit.

Jenny shrugged her shoulders and answered, "I guess."

"Marvelous dear," replied Brit in mocking tone, "Tiff and I were just wondering if you had gotten yourself a date for the dance yet."

Jenny was at first a little hesitant, but before she could answer Brit she was interrupted by Tiff, "See girlfriend, she don't have nobody for the dance!"

"I do too," responded Jenny, "and he's better then anything you two could come up with!"

Tiff had moved a few steps back, but Brit hadn't even flinched. Brit let out a small laugh, patted Jenny's shoulder and answered, "I'm sure you do Jennifer, I'm sure you do. There's no need to get all worked up about it."

Brit let out another laugh and said, "Well I'm sure that Tiff and I can't wait to meet this magnificent specimen you found Jennifer. Till then, we look foreword for seeing you at dance."

"Whatever." said Jenny as she continued her way to class.

**Meanwhile on the Other Side of Tremorton High,**

Brad had just finished fumbling the lock off from his locker when all of a sudden he heard a small voice coming from behind him.

Brad turned around to reveal that it was in fact Sheldon, the nerd that had always stalked Jenny for the longest.

"Hey Sheldon," said Brad as he began searching his locker for his textbooks, "how has everything been going with you lately?"

"Pretty good, pretty good," said Sheldon who seemed to be in a happy mood, "Say Brad, have you gotten anyone for the upcoming dance?"

Brad finished pulling out his Math textbook and placed it on the ground next to his bag and replied, "No not really Sheldon, been kind of busy with watching Tuck and all."

Sheldon remained quite and rocked back and forth, until Brad rolled his eyes and said, "Did you find anyone yet Sheldon?"

"Maaaaaayyyyybbeeeeeee!" replied Sheldon.

"And let me guess," said Brad, "she had blue hair, black eyes, and is covered in metal right?"

"How did you know that!" screamed Sheldon.

Brad closed his locker, moved a couple of feet to another nearby locker, kicked the bottom of it, and then watched as hundreds of pictures of Jenny flowed out onto the floor,

"Just a hunch." said Brad.

Sheldon grabbed as many pictures as he could and jammed them back into his locker before anyone could notice. After barely getting the lock on, Sheldon turned towards Brad and gloated, "You're just jealous because Jenny had picked me."

"One problem with your theory there Sheldon," said Brad as went back to his own locker and picked up his backpack, "First, you usually give Jenny the creeps when you do your stalking thing, and second, I doubt Jenny would immediately choose you to be the first person she would ask to go to the dance with her. I just can't help but think something would be wrong with that picture, but other then that Sheldon I can totally believe everything you have out so far."

"Hmmphh," replied Sheldon as he folded his arms and put his nose to the air, "just you wait and see Brad. By the end of school today, I will have Jenny begging me to take her to the dance, so watch out!

Brad put his hand over his face, gave his head a little shake and responded in a sarcastic tone, "Oh yeah Shell, you got me there."

Sheldon's face was full of glee as he passed Brad and started to make his way to his class, "You see Brad, there's no way Jenny could ever resist me. I'm smart, handsome, and I'm too much of her…."

Before Sheldon could finish his sentence, he had already tripped and fell head first into one of the garbage bins on the side of the hall.

"Very slick Shell, very slick indeed." said Brad as he tried to help pull Sheldon from his smelly trap.

Just as Brad actually began to pulling Sheldon out from the trash bin, the warning bell had went off, and with that Brad let go of Sheldon's legs and said, "Whoops, sorry Sheldon, I got to go.

Just as Brad started to make his to class he heard Sheldon yell, "What about me!"

"Oh don't worry about it," said Brad, "I'm sure a cool guy like yourself wouldn't need any help whatsoever to get out from a measly garbage bin. Catch you later Sheldon!"

As Brad ran off Sheldon began screaming, "Help, somebody get me out of here!"

Just then the school janitor appeared from the around the corner, and as soon as he noticed a talking garbage can with legs in the air, he immediately yelled, "EEEEEEEVVVVVIIIIIIILLLLLLL!" and fled.

**Some Time Later,**

The clock had struck twelve and it was finally lunch hour. Immediately after the bell finished echoing through the halls and classrooms, every student grabbed their necessities and headed to the cafeteria. Brad had come a little late after trying to find his paper bag lunch amongst his locker, but once he set foot in the cafeteria he was greeted by a friendly face.

Brad face lit up and said, "Jenny, how you been!"

Jenny had a little depressed look of on her face, but she was able to form a smile and replied, "Good Brad how was your classes?"

"I should be asking you," answered Brad as he nudged Jenny's elbow, "been experiencing any Sheldon attacks since this morning?"

Jenny let out a small shudder as her and Brad found a small table to sit at, "I tell you Brad, I still wish that I could delete parts of my memory."

"Oh?" said Brad with one of his eyebrows raised and a smile on his face.

"Like you wouldn't believe!" replied Jenny, "First he starts by running into the classroom covered in garbage screaming my name like a madman. Then he runs over to my leg, grabs I, and begins begging to be taken to the dance with him. It was embarrassing!"

Brad tried to conceal his laugh by putting his hand over his mouth and chuckled, "You should have seen Sheldon this morning Jen, going on about being irresistible to you and everything, I could hardly contain myself.

"But I said yes." replied Jenny with a serious face, "I'm going to the dance with Sheldon."

Immediately stopping his laugh and dropping his jaw dropped, Brad answered, "What!"

_Ohhhhhhhhhhhh crud._

Jenny stared at Brad for another moment or two, smiled, and yelled, "Psyche!"

Brad had already formed a large grin on his face and replied, "Very evil you are Ms. Jennifer Wakeman, very evil indeed."

"You should have seen your face," said Jenny, "I swear you were going to have kittens!"

"Alright, alright, you got me Jen," said Brad, "now I believe that it is my turn to provide some interesting details dealing with the events of yesterday and my brother."

After letting out a small giggle Jenny said, "By all means Brad, please continue."

**A Few Minutes Later,**

All the while as Brad continued to eat his lunch, did he finally begin to notice Jenny and her small looks of depression. Even though it looked like Jenny was tired or sleepy, Brad just couldn't help but shake the feeling that something was up.

"Uh hey Jen?" asked Brad.

Raising her head up to Brad, Jenny replied, "Yeah Brad?"

"Is something wrong, you seem………sad or what not." said Brad.

Jenny paused for a moment and seemed to be speechless. _There it is again, that warm thing._

Trying to hide the small blush she had on her face, Jenny turned her head away and said, "Nothing Brad, just a little tired is all."

"Oh," said Brad, "right then."

Just before Brad could go back to his ham and cheese sandwich he saw another of the Tremorton Dance poster's on the wall of the cafeteria. Trying hard not to think anything about it or the dance, Brad lowered his head down back to the table and saw Jenny.

Of course Brad had thought many times before about asking a girl out to the dance, but it had seemed impossible, even for him. It was either they just said no to him, or they ignored him as much some people would ignore the unpopular group.

Taking another look at Jenny, Brad let out a small sigh and sank down for a moment.

_I wonder if Jenny would say yes if I asked her to the dance. Maybe I'm just getting too ahead of myself. Besides, Jenny would probably just say no like every other girl, and would say something like after Don Prima or at least the Silver Shell. I got no chance whatsoever, and yet I still find it a wonder why she still hangs around with me._

"Did you say something Brad?" asked Jenny.

"No," replied Brad hoping that he didn't mumble anything out loud, "I had my mind on something else, sorry about that Jenny."

Jenny turned around for a second, made up a fake smile and said, "No problem Brad."

Ironically, that was it. Brad just couldn't take it any longer. His curiosity seemed to take hold of him while at the same time his doubt had all but gone and disappear from his mind, "Jenny can I ask you something?"

By then Jenny already had turned herself to the table and immediately answered, "Yes Brad?"

"Well…..," said Brad as his voice seemed get quieter and quieter, "I was just wondering……….you know…….about…..the dance……and everything right?"

Jenny's immediately perked right up as her hanging depression seem to fade away and was replaced with a new sense of excitement, "Oh the Tremorton Dance this Saturday, I had forgotten all about it."

Of course it was a lie, but the last thing Jenny needed now was to make it look like she was desperate about the dance and getting a date.

"Oh," answered Brad with a nervous voice, "I………was…..well you know…….just….uhh….wondering…"

Jenny couldn't believe what was happening. _Is Brad going to ask me to dance?_

"Well………Jenny?" asked Brad.

"Yes!" replied Jenny with her eyes in a sparkling gaze as she put one of her hands on Brad's.

Brad took a deep gulp, fidgeted with the collar of his shirt and answered, "Jenny would…."

But before Brad could say another word to Jenny a large explosion had gone off nearby which caused all the windows to shatter. Immediately reacting to event, Jenny transformed her arms into a set of large shields to cover bits of the cafeteria and the students from the falling glass shards.

Once the glass stopped falling from what used to be the cafeteria windows, Jenny transformed her arms back to their regular self's and let out an annoyed groan.

_Why does this have to happen now, why!_

Jenny looked down at Brad and yelled, "Be right Brad, got to save the town and everything."

Brad waved and answered, "No worries Jenny, I'll watch your back!"

With that Jenny blasted her rockets to full blast and disappeared from the cafeteria in a bright blue light.

As Jenny was making her way around the school she stopped in her tracks when she saw that it was school parking lot where all the action seemed to have hit. As soon as she landed on the ground, she equipped her Monkey Fists and slowly moved around the lot keeping a watchful for any movement. But just as she had walked by one of the parked cars a very large figure emerged behind her, grabbed Jenny by her ponytails, and tossed her into a set of cars.

Once Jenny had gotten back up on her feet she looked at the beast that had caught her off guard and disgusted. There stood a large robot, or what seemed to be a robot, except it was extremely damaged and covered in raw oil with electricity leaking out from about every inch of it. The beast's face itself was horrific sight. Vile spikes were immersed along different parts of the creatures face while at the same time it eyes and the cuts all along the face and body had glowed with a bright red.

"I don't know who you are ," said Jenny, "but you picked a real bad time to get to get me out of school."

With that, Jenny unequipped her Monkey Fists and transformed her right hand into a large energy cannon and fired a surging blast directly at the monsters torso. The creature let out a large scream of pain before it began to charge at Jenny with a ferocious speed. Quickly dodging the behemoth, Jenny watched as the large machine continued its rampage into a few cars then stopped.

The machine let out another scream of pain as Jenny watched pieces of its armor and other parts of its body fall off.

Jenny was shocked, but she raised he cannon up again and yelled, "Okay buddy, what's going on here?"

Grabbing pieces of its own chest and ripping it off, the beast screamed, "Paiiiiinnnnnnn……it will burn us all!"

Before Jenny could make her move the beast charged again at her now screaming, "Cluster………….for them….and not us!"

By this time however Jenny immediately activated her rockets in her feet and flew out of the path of the beast just in the nick of time.

Immediately equipping numerous amounts of weapons from all over her body, Jenny set her sights on the machine and said, "I warned you."

But before Jenny could even fire off a single shot, the machine let out another scream and feel to the ground dead. Returning herself back to normal, Jenny inspected whatever was left of the dead machine and gave it a small kick to check to see if it was truly defeated.

_This is odd, it's like it just quit or something._

Already Brad had already made it out onto the parking lot and yelled, "Jenny! Nice job on that big bot there, that was awesome!"

"Brad," replied Jenny to Brad as she slowly landed back onto the ground, "Don't get too close, it's still dangerous around here."

"Really," said Brad as kicked the dead machine a few times, "looks pretty safe to me Jen. So what was that all about with handsome here falling to the ground and everything?"

"Don't know," replied Jenny, "it was almost like it destroyed itself or something."

"Destroyed itself," said Brad, "that seems a little farfetched, don't you think?"

Jenny nodded and answered, "Well you know the Cluster, their about as predictable as Tuck is."

Brad laughed for a moment and said, "Come on Jen, I think we have to get going to class now."

"Sure," said Jenny as she began to follow Brad.

Just as the two began their way out from the parking lost, Brad began to notice the sky and clouds turning into a dark black color.

"That's odd, I thought it was supposed to rain tomorrow." said Brad.

"It isn't," replied Jenny as turned around and saw the large behemoth back up on its feet.

"Watch out Brad!" screamed Jenny as she grabbed Brad and then tossed him aside.

Just as the creature tried to swing one its massive claws at Jenny, Jenny immediately responded by activating her rockets again and flying high up into the air.

The machine yelled in pain as it continuously flayed its arms around in the air in an attempt to hit Jenny, but was unsuccessful.

"Time to end this, once and for all" said Jenny as a gatling cannon emerged from her back.

By then the one of the creature's smaller claws was raised up, and before Jenny could react, the small claw was launched into the air with a long wire dragging behind it.

Just as Jenny noticed the small claw coming for her, it had already pierced her left leg and immediately followed with a large electrical shock through her entire body.

Falling to the ground unconscious, Brad had all of a sudden emerged from nowhere and put out his arms in an attempt to catch Jenny.

"I gotcha Jen!" yelled Brad as he ran around in few circles.

Just as Brad had caught Jenny, had not forgotten about Jenny being made of metal and the speed she was falling to the ground, he might have been better prepared for her instead of getting squished.

Trying hard with every inch of his body to lift Jenny up just so he could carry her, Brad was only successful enough to get a few inches off the ground before succumbing to the will of gravity again.

Brad could see the beast approaching as it was now walked with a limp and the rest of its body had almost fallen to pieces. Moving in front of Jenny, Brad picked up a nearby muffler, swung it around a few times and yelled, "Come on ugly, you wanna piece of me?"

The beast let out a screech and picked up some metal debris and threw it at Brad, who immediately used the muffler as a quick shield. Once the debris had finally stopped pounding on Brad's shield, Brad noticed a couple pieces of debris on the ground and let out a small grin.

By then the mechanical beast raised up a large mini-van over itself and was prepared to throw it at its enemies, when all of a sudden a voice yelled out, "Batter up!"

With that a large metal fan flung itself into the machine's left eye which caused it to let out another horrible shriek. By then the metal monster released the grip on the vehicle it held above itself, and in no time it was immediately flattened by its own weapon.

"Yes!" cheered Brad as he threw the dented muffler into the air, "that was awesome!"

Just then Brad felt a hand on his shoulder and as he turned around he saw it was Jenny who had finally gotten up.

"Nice job there Brad," replied Jenny with a smile, "I'm going to have to start watching out for your swinging arm from now on."

Before Jenny could utter another word, Brad put his hand over Jenny's mouth and said, "Uh Jen, I still think we have a problem here." (points to van)

Jenny saw it too, despite the large vehicle already crushing what was left of the metal monstrosity, Jenny was more annoyed than amazed at the fact that the beast was still functioning.

Putting one of her knees down to the ground, Jenny then transformed her arms into two huge energy guns and began charging her shot.

Jenny stared at the screaming machine as it now crawled its way over to her and Brad, and as soon as her blast turned a bright white color, she immediately let loose her shot.

The shot didn't shake the ground nor did it generate a powerful blast, it just seemed to light up the entire area with a blinding light and nothing else. After everything turned back to normal Jenny's shield that had covered her and Brad returned back into her ponytails following with the energy weapons going back into her arms.

Yet with all that firepower the creature still stood there, unharmed and unchanged since the blast.

"Jenny," asked Brad with a very confused look, "what was that supposed to do?"

Jenny just smiled and walked her way calmly towards the beast. Once she was face to face with it, Jenny watched as it raised its claw to attack while Jenny transformed her right hand into a small fan and aimed it at the machine's deformed face.

The monster stopped and began to laugh while Jenny just stood there and finally turned on the petite fan. Only after a few seconds of turning it on, Jenny watched as the twisted machine disappeared from sight and cloud of dust filled the air.

With that the sky cleared from its dark presence and returned back into its care free blue and grey colors.

Making her way back to Brad, Jenny began to laugh at Brad's jaw-dropping expression.

"Bu…..bu…….bu…" stuttered Brad.

"Oh that," said Jenny as she played with her ponytails, "mom just installed me with that Atom Smasher a few weeks back, now come on we don't want to be late for class now do we Brad?"

Brad still just stood there and said, "You frighten me sometimes."

"Come on you." said Jenny as she grabbed Brad's hand and pulled him back into Tremorton High with her.

**End of Chapter 1**

**Author's Note: **Well there's chapter 1 for everyone, please leave me a review to let me know how I did, and I apologize if I might have screwed something up or done a bad job, sorry again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **Note I do not own any of the characters or anything else from My Life as Teenage Robot created by Nickelodeon. This fanfic is only meant for entertainment and nothing else.

**Note: **The markings of, "(" and, ")" represent any characters actions, and _italics _represent inner though.

**Author's Notes: **Words nevah express how much all your comments meant and howz much your patience will awarded you'se. For a while I'ze was caught up wit many things, leavin my fic work behind really hurt me a lot, especially wit the uncomforting feeling of not finishing the story for all the people that took their time to read my fic. And over the last set of days I worked harder than I'ze ever had wit dis here fic and I'ze can only cross me fingers ta hear your responses once more.

**Author's Responses:**

JPElles – Groovy! Hope ya might like this newest addition to my Nine is the Loneliest Number fic.

stormrider7 – I'ze love to make my chapters long, hopefully likez you'se said dats a good thing, lol. Big thankz for your thoughtful comment, made sure to work my can off ta ghet this newest one up. – Indeed, I'ze tend to do that a lot with da majority of me fics, lol. Very much enjoyed your response, looking forward to what ya have to say with chapter 2!

kittychobit – Well den enjoy the second chapter! Sorry again for itz taking so long, lol.

calamite – Aye, I doubt dere be anything thatz be stopping me from finishing this tale, greatly appreciated your kind comment.

warlord-xana – Hey thank a lot, I'ze most appreciated your response. Hope ya enjoy this one as much as you'se did wit da first.

blazething – Can't say thank you'se enough for the comments, enjoyed reading it I'ze did. Can't wait ta hear whatz you has ta say next wit my newest chapter.

Hanae Nakasome – So you'se have commanded it, so shall it be! Hope itz to your liking!

Connections – Disappoint……….. (hands Connections the next chapter) I'ze nevah disappoint. -

**Nine is the Loneliest Number**

**Chapter 2**

**By Timmy22222001**

By the time school had finally finished, both Jenny and Brad were totally beat as they walked their way home.

'That surprise Biology test in class today," said Jenny in a disgusted tone, "talk about a nightmare huh Brad?"

"Like you wouldn't believe," replied Brad rolling eyes, "and it was all because we didn't bother to save his van from getting smashed in by big ugly in the parking lot. I mean really, give us a break here!"

"Tell me about it." said Jenny with a small smirk on her face, "how are doing Brad, broken anything serious?"

"Nothing a few bandages and good nights sleep couldn't fix," answered Brad with both his thumbs up, "Speaking of which, how's your leg been?"

Jenny then paused for a moment and began to study her leg. After a small scanner emerged suddenly from her left arm, Jenny began to run the machine over the hole and replied, "It looks like nothing too serious from what my systems are telling me. Despite some minor damages, I'm pretty sure it's nothing more than just a scratch."

"Phew," said Brad as he continued his walk with Jenny, "was wondering if you were going to be okay or not."

Jenny smiled, looked at Brad and said, "That's sweet of you Brad, but you don't need to worry about me so much." _Of course I don't mind it really._

"No, I wasn't worrying" immediately replied Brad with a light blush on his face, "I was just a little bit concerned about you…. I mean your leg that's all!"

Jenny let out a small giggle and answered, "Nice to see you're concerned on my legs well-being."

_He really is sweet._

"Well you never know what going to pop up next do you?" said Brad.

Just as Brad has finished his sentence, a large cheer had rung out from in front of him and Jenny. Before anyone could realize it, there was Tuck clinging to Brad's face much like the odd creatures of Extraterrestrial. Tuck then cheered, "Brad!!!!!!! I'm so glad to see you, I was home alone for the longest and I was so bored out of my mind! I thought at first there was going to be a monster that would come get me if I didn't if I didn't eat enough broccoli so I went and…"

As Tuck seemed to go on and on with his never-ending chatter, Jenny was helping to pry him from Brad's face when she asked, "Tuck you do know that's its really only been a couple of hours since Brad and I left for school?"

With an odd popping noise, Tuck's grip was broken and with that Brad was free again to see more than a red shirt with a black stripe occupying his view

"Speaking of which," followed Brad as he put his hands on his hips, "What are you doing home so early Tuck, don't tell me that they didn't suspend you from your school again?"

"I beg your pardon!" said Tuck with his arms crossed, "I have no idea what you two are talking about!"

**Some Hours Earlier**

"Ladies and gentlemen," said Tuck, "for your eyes only, contained behind this curtain here is a marvel that has been hidden from mankind for thousands of years! A creature of pure phenomenon and fantasy that had let alone sparked a new revolution in the dawning of civilization. Horrendous, monstrous, and vile that……"

"Tuck," said his teacher as she kept her face covered by a small clipboard, "just please show the judges here your science fair project so we can go onto the other contestants."

Tuck blinked, smiled and replied, "SowithoutfurtheradueInowintroduce……The Man-Eating Chicken!"

With that Tuck pulled the cord in his hand, which opened the magnificently decorated drape to reveal a man in fact actually eating a bucket of fried chicken.

"Absurd!" screamed a judge.

"Foolishness!" yelled another.

"Completely unsatisfactory!" yelled the third one.

"I say, could I grab nibble with one of the wings?" asked the last one.

Tuck smiled and nodded as the judge was handed to him a large chicken wing by the man-eating chicken.

Immediately Tuck's teacher yelled, "Tuck, what is the meaning of this?"

"What?" shrugged Tuck, "He's my next door neighbor and he totally agreed to do this. I can see nothing wrong with any of my actions!"

Tuck watched as his teacher's eye began to twitch and then she immediately spun around the judges and said, "Now how about we move onto the other projects shall we?" (aggressively points off to another science project)

As Tuck's teacher and the group of judges walked away, a small boy with a set of large glasses and bleach blonde hair approached Tuck and said in a sarcastic tone, "What a very interesting science project you have for us today Tuck, might I suggest a bearded lady for next year?"

"Hey that's actually a pretty swell idea," said Tuck in a rather joyous tone, "Hey wait a minute Gregory, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothing," answered Gregory, "I just like it to see it get beaten by my project this year so I can rub my shiny blue ribbon in your face like I usually do."

"You!" replied Tuck pointed and shook his finger at Gregory.

"Well I love to stay and chat with you Tuck, but I have a science fair to win, so good day to you then." said Gregory in a cocky tone.

Tuck began walking his way out of the gymnasium when all of sudden he caught notice of the gym teacher's office door open with nobody inside.

By then the judges and Tuck's teacher had finally reached Gregory's science fair booth and one of the judges burst out in an excited tone of voice, "So Mr. Gregory what do you have for us this year?"

Gregory smiled and responded, "You know, just a little something I cooked up in my spare time."

"Well don't keep us waiting dear boy," said another judge, "show us what you have made."

"Right then!" answered Gregory as he pulled his chord to open the booth and reveal a large smashed pile of metal junk along with Tuck holding a large baseball bat.

Jaws dropped as the entire gymnasium was filled with silence while Tuck dropped the bat behind him, began waving his arms and said, "This is all an illusion! OOOOOOOOoooooooOOOOOoooooooooOOOooo….." (smiles)

**An Hour after the Incident,**

As a car screeched it tires to an immediate halt in front of Brad's house, Tuck then was flung out from the back seat onto the sidewalk.

Having instantly gotten back up on his feet, Tuck watched the small car speed away as he shook his fist and yelled, "I'll be back tomorrow!"

**Back to Now,**

"Other then that, I have no idea why they would send me back home so early." said Tuck as he scratched his chin.

Brad just put his hand over his face and shook his head while Jenny just burst out laughter.

"What?" asked Tuck with a slight shrug of his shoulders..

Taking his hand from his face, Brad let out a small groan and answered, "Tuck, just please go back inside the house."

"Okey-Dokey!" responded Tuck in a rather cheery sort of tone.

As Tuck ran his way back to the house, Jenny smiled and said to Brad, "Well……..good thing that wasn't weird."

Brad formed a smile and nodded, "Oh yeah."

"Anyways," said Jenny, "I got to get going home now Brad, but as soon as I finish my History homework….."

"I'll already have the DVD system warmed up," interrupted Brad, "and remember be there around our place for eight or….."

"Or else you'll have to start without me," countered Jenny with a warm smile, "I wouldn't miss it for the world Brad."

Pausing for a moment, Brad turned his head towards Jenny and asked, "What was that last part again?"

Jenny panicked as her face had blushed with a bright blue, in which she immediately responded, "Uh….I'll see you at your place for eight Brad…..look you brothers trying to burn the kitchen down!!"

Brad instantly panicked as he spun around to the direction of his house and yelled out, "Tuck, don't do it, we still have leftovers!"

After noticing that there were no flames erupting from the kitchen nor from any other part of the house Brad slightly paused and then added, "Hey wait a minute, there's no…."

Turning his head to where Jenny had stood, he only saw a small cloud of dust and then heard a door slam which was more than likely the one from Jenny's house. Scratching his head in confusion, Brad then shrugged his shoulders and continued his way back home.

**Meanwhile Aboard a Cluster Flagship,**

"A thousand curses!" screamed Vexus as she slammed her fist on the controls, "why hasn't XJ9 been affected yet?!"

"But my queen," squealed a small Cluster drone as it ran over to Vexus, "the virus has already been planted and is already working at full capacity to infect XJ9!"

"I don't care about that," yelled Vexus as she punched a rather large hole into the wall, "I want results!"

Just then another drone ran over to Vexus and said, "My queen, the virus is now fully active, and has now begun its mutation sequence!"

Vexus formed a sinister grin and said, "Now that my virus has been planted all I have to do is watch XJ9 destroy herself and then I can release the Cluster's Apocalypse and the world will be at my fingertips!"

After letting an evil laugh, the small drones poked Vexus's leg and asked, "My queen, who are you talking to?"

Vexus just closed her eyes and shook her head, "Never mind drone, just call me when XJ9 notices her mutations taking effect."

As Vexus mumbled to herself and made her way to her personal chamber, one of the drones said to other, "Geez what her problem?"

"I head that!" screamed Vexus.

**Meanwhile Back on Earth,**

After making her hasty retreat to her house, Jenny let out a deep sigh and then leaned herself on the door with her arms around her chest.

_Where did all that emotion come from, and why did I say and think those things about Brad? Why is this happening to me? _(bonks head repeatedly on the back on the door)

Jenny did in fact know some of the answers to the many questions she had running in her head, but even then she still felt doubtful and sometimes lost at how to answer them all. Although she had felt like most of them had to do with the feeling of love, Jenny still felt puzzled as to what it was and why she had yet to have it before. From what her mom told her earlier before when she first met and guys like Silver Shell and Don Prima, she was told it was only a regular crush she experienced like any teenage girl, "Nothing as close to what love is." always said Ms. Wakeman.

Before Jenny could sort anything else out, her mom had walked into the room and asked, "X-9-Nein exactly why are you propped up on the door like that?"

"Sorry mom," answered Jenny as she removed herself from her short-lived thinking spot, "I was just……ahhh……..testing the door to see for its….uhh…durability!"

Ms. Wakeman raised her eyebrow and took a sip of coffee before saying, "Sure. Now why exactly is it that the left portion of your is leg damaged?"

"Oh that," said Jenny as she presented the small cut in her leg to her mom, "some ugly Cluster thing attacked me at school, shot a small claw into my leg, and gave me a shock. It's nothing too serious mom."

"Hmmmmmm, have you already done an internal system analysis?" asked Ms. Wakeman as she inspected the damaged section a few more times.

"My system says that everything's fine mom," said Jenny as she pulled her leg back to herself, "despite minor damage, I'm sure it's nothing that serious."

Ms. Wakeman nodded before taking another sip of her black coffee and replying, "Well after I cook some dinner, I grab my tool kit and see what I can do about it. Till then try not to think too little of it X-J-Nein, the Cluster are a tricky race and it's hard to say exactly what they're up to next."

"Sure mom," said Jenny with a quick shake of her head, "I'll be upstairs doing my homework if you need me."

Ms. Wakeman gave a tiny nod and made her way off into kitchen while Jenny began to climb stairs to her room, letting out a rather deep sigh when she reached the top.

**An Hour Later,**

Just as Jenny had finished her Math and grabbed her History textbook, a sharp pain all of a sudden rose up in the back of her neck. Taking one her hands to check the back of her neck to check what was in fact going on that Jenny realized that some small spike that had somehow emerged from under her armor.

_What the?_

But before Jenny had the chance to do anything, she began to feel sharp electrical pains throughout her body which almost caused her to almost fall right onto the floor.

As Jenny tried to balance herself, she watched as her mirror in front began to fizz like a TV almost and then was replaced unfortunately by none other than Vexus, Queen of the Cluster and Cluster Prime.

"Vexus," said Jenny as she tried to keep her systems from going into their offline states, "what are you up to?"

"Oh hello Jennifer," said Vexus with sinister smile, "am I interrupting something?"

Jenny let out a small scream of pain while Vexus let out an evil laugh before continuing, "I can see my virus is already starting to do its job."

"A virus?" replied Jenny.

"Correct Jennifer," answered Vexus with a grin, "a virus specifically designed to put robots just like you out of my way once and for all!"

"That thing you sent after me," said Jenny, "it must have been a carrier!"

Vexus gave Jenny another cheery smile and replied, "Correct again Jennifer! Of course the "thing" that you're describing was actually a very loyal protector of Orbital Six."

Letting out another shriek, Jenny watched at the horror as her left arm was ripping apart with claws and more sharps spikes seeming to emerge from inside her.

"You see Jennifer," said Vexus, "the virus that was planted on you is very……unique."

"How so?" remarked Jenny in a bitter tone just seconds before a large set of spikes ripped out from her leg.

Vexus raised an eyebrow and answered, "At first it all started out as a simple enhancer that would benefit any robot that would use it. However, thanks to some minor alterations, we were able to turn it into a powerful weapon, and I have to say I'm quite impressed."

Jenny trying hard to pull herself up with whatever were her arms had transformed into her now commenting, "Vexus, you've gone too far this time."

"Jennifer," responded Vexus with a sense of glee, "your transformation has just begun. For you see, only if you're able to survive these "mutations," will you be worthy enough to join to Cluster. After which, the virus targets the mind directly and alters it, and in my case will make you into my most loyalist of warriors."

After letting out another painful scream when a long metal wing emerged from Jenny's back that Ms. Wakeman downstairs finally reacted for her daughter's cries for help.

"However," said Vexus, "If you are unsuccessful with your transformation, your body will be unable to take the pressure and then begin to fall to pieces like dear Pung of Orbital Six. But from the looks of you now, I'd have to say that everything seems to be going along with flying colors. Till then Jennifer, destroy the Earth for me till I get back to you."

More electric sparks and shocks flew out from Jenny's mutating body, one which caught one the lights, immediately setting each one in the room off as Vexus left Jenny with one last sinister laugh.

With that Jenny's mirror returned back to its original state and immediately following with Ms. Wakeman breaking through the bedroom door equipped with a large laser rifle.

"X-J-Nein, where are you!" cried out Ms. Wakeman as she aimed the rifle throughout every corner of the darkened room, "I had heard come horrible screaming from downstairs and I suspected that…….."

**Meanwhile Back at Brad's House,**

Tuck ran into Brad's room with arms waving yelling, "Brad, Brad something's dreadful is going on!"

"What is it Tuck?" immediately answered Brad as he stopped whatever he was doing.

"I don't know," said Tuck as he tried to catch his breath, "I heard someone screaming and I swear I thought it was coming from Jenny's house!"

Instantly reacting to his brother's warning, Brad jumped up from his seat, and ran to open to his bedroom window. Making no sudden movements or even the slightest of sounds, Brad's ears were his only reliable source of information as he prayed that Tuck was mistaken with pinpointing the noise from Jenny's house. After listening for another couple of minutes and still hearing nothing that compared to nothing that Tuck had described to him, Brad closed his window and patted his brother's head, "Nice one Tuck, you got me there." (shakes head)

"But Brad," answered Tuck in a high pitched tone, "I swear I heard something coming from Jenny's house!"

"Right," said Brad, "and I hear dead people talk to me whenever I make bologna sandwiches. Once again, give it up Tuck."

In fact Brad was already starting to worry about Jenny whereabouts. Although he still believed Tuck had played a joke on him, he couldn't help but shake the uncomforting feeling he held in the back of his mind. Taking a look at his watch on his left arm, Brad saw that the time was already 6:30 pm.

_Thirty more minutes to go. Please be okay Jenny, please be okay._

Still trying to shake his negative thoughts from his mind, Brad went over to his computer and began booting it up.

"Besides," said Brad in a somewhat distressed tone, "I'm sure Jenny's fine Tuck. It not like she can't handle anything on her own."

Tuck paused for a moment and scratched his chin before answering, "Yeah but….."

"Don't worry about it Tuck," replied Brad as he moved the mouse around making some clicking sounds, "if Jenny doesn't show up in the next little while, you and I will go check up on it."

"I still don't feel right about it," said Tuck with a concerned face.

"Same here Tuck, same here." answered Brad with a similar look.

**40 Minutes Later,**

Much time had passed now and there had still been no sign of Jenny. By now Brad was getting really troubled with Jenny's disappearance so he got up from the computer chair and picked up his cell phone.

"Calling Jenny?" asked Tuck as he jumped onto Brad's computer chair and did a few spins.

"Who else?" said Brad.

Tuck watched his older brother stood silent for a while with the cell phone in his ear before it was placed back on the table and then replaced with a small flashlight.

"What's up?" wondered Tuck.

"Dunno," said Brad as he checked the batteries if the batteries still had some power left in them, "it seems like the line is dead or something. I think I'm going to go and check it out."

"Are you crazy?" said Tuck as his teeth had started to chatter, "its pitch black out there!"

"Tuck its only late afternoon." answered Brad as he pointed outside where the sun could be seen setting

"Then what's the flashlight for?" said Tuck.

"For you." responded Brad as he set the black flashlight onto the computer desk.

"Hey!" answered Tuck, "I'm not afraid of the dark or anything else!"

Brad stood there for a few moments just staring at Tuck before saying, "Sock puppets."

"AAAGGGHHH!" screamed Tuck as he grabbed the flashlight and turned it on, "where are they?!"

After a few moments of waving Brad's flashlight around available direction Tuck said, "Phew, it's a miracle that your sock security devices still works."

"Oh yeah you got that right Tuck," said Brad as patted his brother head, "now I'm going to check to see what's up at Jenny's house."

"Hey Brad, can I still use the computer?" asked Tuck just as Brad reached the door.

"Fine," replied Brad, "but try not to "accidentally" reboot the entire system like the last four times."

"Yes!" cheered Tuck as he spun the computer chair towards the monitor.

As Brad continued his way down the stairs, Tuck was connecting to the net when he yelled, "Brad!"

Brad stopped for a moment, let out a brief sigh and replied to his younger brother, "What do you need now Tuck?"

"Can I check your emails and everything?" said Tuck as he poked his head out from the door.

"No Tuck." answered Brad as he started to reach out towards the front door.

Just before Brad was about to turn the handle of the front door, he paused and reminded himself to grab his coat.

Meanwhile back upstairs, Tuck was already making his through Brad's old emails when he heard his older brother call out to him, "Hey Tuck, do you know where mom tossed my jacket?"

When Tuck first heard his brother call out to him, he thought he was caught and somehow he immediately became frozen with any action. But after a quick glance through the empty room, Tuck wiped his forehead with his hand and replied, "I think mom put it in the closet underneath the stairs."

"Thanks Tuck." answered Brad as he slid his hand away from the railing of the stairs.

"Now," said Tuck and he cracked his knuckles, "time to take Brad's email and sign him up with girly sites."

But just as Tuck was about to grab the mouse, he heard a small, playful tone come from the speakers attached to the computer. Taking hold of the mouse, Tuck moved it around a bit and said in surprise, "Hey, Brad just got an email from Jenny."

Back downstairs, Brad pulled himself out from the deeps of the closet with his jacket and cheered, "Yes, got it!"

Just as Brad finished closing the small closet door, he could hear his brother yell out to him from his room, "Hey Brad, you got an email from Jenny! I'm going to open it okay?"

"Tuck," replied Brad as tossed his jacket onto a nearby chair, "I told you not to go through my stuff!"

Tuck had already clicked on the email to open it, but even with the fact that their internet was a high speed type and Brad had a decent computer, the email itself refused to open.

"Come on," said Tuck as continued to click the mouse on the open button displayed next to the email.

Fed up with the machine and its slow speed, Tuck jumped down from the chair and onto the floor and delivered a hard kick to the side of the computer, "Stupid junk, work faster!"

From downstairs Tuck heard Brad yell, "Tuck are you kicking my computer again?"

"It's not my fault it's slow!" commented Tuck as he jumped back onto the chair and turned it towards the monitor again.

Brad just sighed and said, "Tuck, just don't touch anything else, I'll be up in a second okay?"

"Hmmpphh," commented Tuck as he crossed his arms a bit, "why would something so small like an email take so long to open?"

But before Tuck could even begin to contemplate the internet situation, he began to hear a small static-like noise coming from speakers. Ignoring it for only a few moments, Tuck was shocked and rather confused to find the eerie sound growing louder and louder.

Tuck sighed for a moment and said, "Now the stupid speakers aren't working."

Reaching over to the speakers, Tuck froze for a moment as he noticed that not only was volume dial set to mute, but the regular green power light at the bottom was turned off.

"What the…" spoke Tuck as he leaned back onto the chair.

And with no warning the growing noise broke into a high pitched scream as Tuck immediately covered his ears and closed his eyes. Brad had his ears plugged too, but amongst the annoying screeching noise, Brad tried to yell to his brother, "Tuck what the heck are you doing?!"

Meanwhile upstairs Tuck was captivated in a moment of utter fear as he watched the computer screen itself was filled with an unknown language and bent and moved around like something was stirring in it.

Wasting no time, Tuck jumped from the seat onto the floor and was making the fastest way he could to the door when he heard a loud glass shattering noise come from behind him. His hand, no more than a foot away from doorknob was stopped as well as the rest of body as his eyes now watched in fright as a large figure was emerging its way through the computer monitor.

By now the horrible scream that filled Brad's room and as well as the rest of the house had finally stopped, and with that Brad was already upstairs and opening the door to his room. Before Brad could even say a word to Tuck, who was directly in front of his when he opened the door, Brad became totally silent as his eyes moved over to where his computer and his desk once was.

And there it was. A huge, black figure with spikes formed all across its body, with long tentacles and large cuts across its arms and legs, it was a horrible sight to see.

But even then, with its monstrous shape and disfiguring form, the beast had its hand and knees to the floor, almost like it was utterly exhausted.

Before Brad or even Tuck could make any move, Brad and Tuck could hear their unexpected guest try to talk as its unusual mouth moved slowly and said, "...Please….."

Repeating its phrase for only a few more times, the monstrosity continued its heavy panting all the while Brad and Tuck were still frozen while trying to back out of the room.

Slowly and so very cautiously, Tuck turned his head to his older brother and whispered the obvious question to him, "B….bbbb…..Brad! What t….ttt..the heck are w…..ww…we going to d..ddd..do?"

"Well," said Brad as some sweat ran down his head, "besides never letting you go into my room again, I say there's only thing we can do."

"Wha…..what's…….th…thhh….that?" replied Tuck as he tried hard to keep himself from panicking."

Narrowing his eyes in on the creature for a moment, Brad then turned his head back to Tuck and whispered, "The only thing that we can do in a drastic situation like this. Follow my lead Tuck?"

Tuck nodded his head at a slow pace all the while he eyes remained bugged and the rest of his body kept still.

"Good." said Brad as he clenched his fists and slowly rose up.

"RUUUUUUNNNNN!!!!!" hollered out Brad as he grabbed his brother, shoved the door out of his way and booked it down the hallway.

Immediately, the creature raised it head and let out a horrible shriek as the red along its body started to fiercely glow brighter and brighter. And wasting no time whatsoever, the beast stood up, and began a chaotic charge at Brad and Tuck.

Just as he reached the railing at the top of the steps, Brad heard a loud hammering sound as he watched the freakish being storming through the door of his room like it was paper. With no hint of it stopping, Brad immediately jumped onto the rail and slid down the stairs as the creature made a direct collision into his parent's room behind him.

"Ha-ha your mother was a toaster oven!" cheered Brad as he continued to slide down the stairs with his Tuck underneath his arm.

Not paying too much attention to the ride, Brad and Tuck hit the slope at the bottom of the railing and were sent into the air for a small duration before landing with Brad's face to the floor.

"Ouch." said Brad as he began to lift himself up from the wooden boards.

Only getting half a foot up, Tuck then landed on Brad's back and sent him back to comforting, hard wooden floor.

"That was awesome Brad!" applauded Tuck with his hands in the air, "let's do it again!"

Yet before Brad could even comment on Tuck's remark, a huge shriek and a number of crashing noises broke out upstairs from his parent's bedroom

**Outside of Brad's House**

"AAAAAAGGGHHHHH!" screamed both Tuck and Brad as they bolted out from the door and onto the front lawn with their arms in the air.

And no sooner then that, right across the street Ms. Wakeman kicked her front door open and emerged outside looking like a mess and armed with a another weapon and said, "That young lady is so getting grounded!"

Yelling over to Brad and Tuck who were still in the midst of fleeing she waves her arm and called out, "Boys over here!"

Turning their direction immediately towards Jenny's mother, Brad yelled out, "Ms. Wakeman what's going on?!"

Starting to make her way over Brad and Tuck she replied, "There's no time to explain, something has corrupted XJ-Nein's system!"

"That can't be possible," yelled Brad back to Ms. Wakeman as he and his brother finally made it to the exhausted scientist, "that thing couldn't be Jenny!"

And with that the entire front porch of Brad's house burst apart with the beast emerging from the debris letting loose another horrible yelp of both pain and terror.

**Not too far down the Street,**

There was Sheldon pulling a large red wagon behind him full of gifts and other miscellaneous items with his face stuck in a bunch of cards saying to himself, "Okay…..Jenny I know you can't help but find me attractive…..no wait that doesn't sounds right…..how about…..I know you find it hard to go on every day without me. There we go! Oh, even better, Jenny you…"

The annoying squeak of the wagon's wheels had halted as Sheldon was frozen in his tracks as some howling scream made its way to his ears. Lowering the of cards that in front of him, Sheldon's jaw dropped when he saw a horrible creature not far off causing panic as cars and people began taking off from theirs home.

Instead of taking sides with the families, Sheldon's hanging jaw formed itself into a brilliant smile as he proudly announced, "This looks like a job for the Silver Shell"

Just as he had finished his sentence, the oncoming hordes of people suddenly ran through the Sheldon like an army of bulls to a lone matador.

Now on the ground and having been covered by a number of footprints across his body Sheldon slowly raised his right arm up and said, "Right after…..regaining………consciousness." (KO's)

**Back Around Jenny's House,**

"Get down now," commanded Ms. Wakeman as she sprung in front of Bradley and Tuck already the large weapon began to hum and glow a bright yellow.

Brad instantly took notice of the gun and pulled its sights away from Jenny replying, "What do you think you're doing, you can hurt Jenny!"

"It's not what you think," quickly responded Ms. Wakeman as she pulled the weapon back from Bradley's grip, "I would never fire anything harmful at my daughter, this is only meant to stun her for now!"

Another tug was given to by Brad again as he continued, "That can't be the only way, there has to be something else we can do!"

"What makes you….." trailed off Ms. Wakeman and her and Brad continued their argument all the while Tuck was busy pulling at Brad's pant leg saying, "Uh……..guys…….guyyyssss…….."

Finally having stopped all bickering, Brad and Ms. Wakeman both turned to Tuck and said, "What is it Tuck!"

Tuck only glared at the two and commented, "Ohh……I dunno, but what about THAT!!!!! (points)

A quick turn of theirs head and Brad, Tuck, and Ms. Wakeman were staring eye-to-eye to the monstrous beast that resembled their once beloved Jenny.

Jenny shifted her head back for a moment only to come back with a full powered roar that sent both Tuck and the weapon flying back into a set of garbage cans not too far away.

Brad and Ms. Wakeman still stood there utterly petrified in fear, Jenny's massive jaws began to open wide and immediately lunged forth.

Seconds before the sharp, jagged teeth could chew up Brad and Ms. Wakeman a huge metal fist seemed to emerge from nowhere, scoring a heavy blow to the right side of Jenny's face. Only barely gracing the top of Brad's hair, the set of jaws missed its mark and instead took a large bit out of parked car on the side of the road.

"Ha-ha, evil doer!" cried a strong robotic voice, "Thought you could take a bit of some defenseless citizens? Well, you better think again when the Silver Shell is….."

Immediately Jenny countered The Silver Shell with a punch of her own, sending the overconfident metal hero spinning into the air and then crashing into to the ground below.

Quickly rising back up from a number of mailboxes that somehow caught his fall, the Silver Shell cracked his own knuckles before saying, "So you wanna play it rough now do you cretin?"

Jenny took charge at the silver bot, leaving all Ms. Wakeman, Brad, and Tuck still motionless from their recent brush with death.

Brad was the first to click back to reality who ran his hands over his face and said, "Oh no not they Silver Shell, he doesn't know that thing is Jenny!"

"That means there's no telling how far he'll go to defeat her!" added Ms. Wakeman with a horrified look upon her face.

"Come on Tuck," yelled Brad as he ran over to his half-conscious brother who had a banana peel on top his head, "we got to go and warn the Silver Shell about Jenny!"

"Wait Bradley, Tuck, you can't!" pleaded Ms. Wakeman as she tried to grab the passing teen.

It was too late for Ms. Wakeman to do anything more now, Brad was on a mission and even with countless dangers ahead of him, there was nothing that could stop him.

As Brad continued his run towards the Silver Shell who was busy fighting amongst his best friend Jenny, Tuck was already at the point of consciousness when he muttered to Brad in a rather broken up voice, "Brad…..why are we running…and whats…"

"No time to explain Tuck," said Brad as he made his dash towards the battling machines, "we got to warn the Silver Shell about Jenny. Now hold on!"

There was a slight pause with Tuck, but just as Brad ran his way under Jenny's legs, Tuck looked up the monstrous face of Jenny again and then lost consciousness yet again.

Brad just rolled his eyes and as he turned his head back, a huge claw slammed hard itself hard into the road causing Brad to lose balance and briefly roll along the pavement until he made a full stop using his hands.

Hearing a familiar wailing sound, Brad looked up to see another heavy claw making its way onto his head and Brad quickly grabbed his brother and shielded him with his body.

But luckily there was crushing at all. Before the brutal arm could squish anybody the Silver Shell grabbed hold of it and threw it back to Jenny with all of his might.

"Citizen, which I have no idea who you are, what are you doing here?" asked the Silver Shell as he landed to the ground and picked up Brad and his brother.

"Listen," said Brad, "there something you have to know about this particular monster your fighting!"

A heavy roar went off before Brad could continue and the Silver Shell placed them both to the ground and quickly added, "No time now citizen, you must hide until I have defeated this brute from the streets of our beloved Tremorton!"

"But.." and again before Brad even had a chance to continue the plea, his voice was interrupted by the blasting noise created by the Silver Shell's rocket boots powering up and sending the him into the air.

Off went another solid hit from the Silver Shell but this time he made a heavy hit with Jenny's gut causing her to lower her head enough for the Silver Shell to score another punch with her jaw.

Screaming out once more, Brad bellowed out to the Silver Shell, "You have to stop Silver Shell that thing your fighting is really XJ-9!"

Unfortunately Brad's voice had been somewhat muffled by the on-going fight and the only thing the Silver Shell caught was the word, "XJ-9!"

The Silver Shell and Sheldon inside froze as it then grabbed hold of Jenny's head and said, "What have you done with XJ-9, tell me!"

But Jenny did not answer. All the fighting, smashing, and her horrible transformation had left her almost lifeless, leaving her with barely anything to answer with but only a brief grunt.

Letting go of her head, Jenny's mutilated, and still red glowing body feel to the ground as the Silver Shell continued, "Then you will prepare for what you have to done to XJ-9."

"No, No!" yelled Brad to Silver Shell as he waved his arms frantically in the air.

Yet the Silver's Shells final attack was already starting to set in motion, and neither Brad nor anybody could what was already set in motion.

The Silver Shell's chest whirred and clicked until the legs and the arms themselves had straightened out and each end began to glow with dark amounts of energy. His limbs then started to almost condense back into the chest, leaving nothing more than his head and his chest.

"For whatever you have done to XJ-9 you vile monstrosity, this last attack will surly make you pay for it tenfold." stated the Silver Shell before his head began to sink itself within his chest.

Brad of course was still trying to warn the Silver Shell to stop, but just as he was no more than some feet away from where the Silver Shell was hovering, a bright grey halo began to form around the silver chest piece.

"Oh no," said Brad as he watched the grey halo keep growing and growing with size, "this isn't good."

Taking a glance at his unconscious brother he was still carrying, Brad switched his movements backwards and retreated at least for his brother's sake.

Taking the next step with his attack, the chest itself began to form his own spikes and began to spin around in circles gaining more and more speed for every second. And then the halo itself seemed to grow in size causing small shocks of energy to be created along the spinning chest piece.

The halo then disappeared, almost being somehow absorbed by the chest that was already emitting a powerful glow of odd electrical energy. Followed with a very annoying humming sound, it and the heavy electrical field grew larger and larger until…..

SMASH!!!!

Jenny slammed the Silver Shell her gigantic claw-like arms together exactly like a person squishing a bug with their hands.

Opening her hands up, the crumpled Silver Shell began a fall to the ground below when one of Jenny's massive tentacles emerged from nowhere and then caught the beaten hero.

**Inside the Silver Shell,**

Thankfully Sheldon was unhurt by any of this, being a clever inventor that he is at times, he made sure to armor the interior part of the suit to prevent any chance of damage getting to him.

Of course still being disorientated by the radical amounts of spinning from his failed final attack, he grabbed his off balanced head and said, "Did I win?"

Looking through the screen that provided his view from outside his battle armor he saw a number of spiked covered tentacles coming at him. He paused for a moment and then said, "Aww crud."

**Outside the Silver Shell,**

The tentacles wrapped themselves around the crumpled Silver Shell, tightening and tightening until the offbeat chest piece was turned into a ball shape. Then a bigger tentacle grabbed the metal ball and dropped it into Jenny's left arm, which then swung itself and heaved forth the Silver Shell off into the distance.

**Elsewhere,**

Along a sunshine covered beach there was seen a mass amount of people playing, swimming, socializing, and doing whatever else without a care.

A small girl looked up at the sky for she could swear she could hear a whistling sound and with that a huge grey meteor formed out from the sky and collided far into the water ahead.

Everyone turned to where the odd sphere had fell, but with that they also were staring at a massive tidal wave that had also been formed by the crash.

As the tidal wave began to close its way quickly onto the beach, one boy near the tide turned to another who was busy building sandcastles in the sand and stated, "I so hate you."

**Back around Jenny's Place Again,**

Brad blinked a few times and kept his mouth in awe until he finally spoke, "Well that kind of solved that problem. At least we can….."

The scent of burnt oil began to fill the air around Brad as a repeating gust of warm wind ran all across his back and along his neck.

A small gulp came from Brad as he squeaked out the last of the words, "…help Jenny."

Swinging one of her tentacles at Brad, the unprepared teen wasn't fortunate enough to make any attempt to run and was hit hard on the back, sending him rolling across a patch of grass.

"Bradley!" shrieked Ms. Wakeman in horror as to see what her own daughter was doing to her friend.

Bringing the stun weapon up to bare, Ms. Wakeman immediately began firing shots off at Jenny screaming, "That is far enough young lady!"

Meanwhile Brad had risen up from the ground, and having to of course ignore the tender wounds along his back, he picked up his brother, and dropped him into a nearby trash can, making sure to close the lid on top.

Still firing yellow glowing shots into Jenny's body, Ms. Wakeman all of sudden stumbled as she tripped over a piece of silver scrap metal and accidentally let go of her firearm.

Having not even a chance to pick up the weapon again, a small tentacle flew from out of nowhere and broke the gun apart like glass. Yet even then, Jenny herself wasn't fully back and in control for she was still weakened by the effects of the gun on her already exposed systems.

Ms. Wakeman then immediately yelled to Brad, "Run now Bradley, she's only temporarily stunned for a few…."

A swing of a group of tentacles struck down Ms. Wakeman with no warning, causing her to instantly lose conscious but luckily enough not to lose anything else.

The roar that still had struck fear in Brad time and time again echoed out from Jenny as sparks and metal bits than began to break away along random parts of her damaged body.

Already in the motion of crawling backwards with his butt to the ground and his eyes locked onto Jenny's mangled and monstrous face, Jenny then shifted her weight over to Brad and moved one massive step in his direction.

"Jenny please you have to stop," finally spoke Brad as he continued his movements back, "it's me Brad, don't you remember?"

Jenny kept her silence as she made another large step towards Brad.

"Jenny, this isn't you, you have to fight whatever's controlling you now!" pleaded Brad.

Having only just finished his sentence, Brad was stopped all of sudden when his back then bumped into the back of an old trash can.

Tuck immediately lift the lid of his smelly bunker, rose up and yelled, "Brad what happened, all I remember is Jenny going crazy, Ms. Wakeman, the Silver Shell, running, and…." (looks up at up Jenny and goes silent)

"Well good luck then Brad!" said Tuck as he pulled down the lid of the garbage can.

Brad just frowned and nothing more.

Jenny was far from done however, reaching her huge arms along her back, she slowly grabbed held of some odd wing and then tightened her grip. With a painful scream let out and the screeching of tearing metal, Jenny pulled with all she could to strip the wing completely from her back.

Its sharp and rather fine looking wing looked to be nothing more than an oversized blade and once the last set of wires had broken away from the stem on her back, Jenny began to lift her heavy weapon high

Brad could see his life running through his eyes, his childhood, parents, brother, and finally Jenny, probably the only girl that gave him the time of day and that always stick with him. Now was memory lapse ended he could only see the horrible beast that had overtaken his dear friend and with tears in his eyes he looked up to beast and said, "Please Jenny, please don't do this."

The blade was heaved back and Jenny was ready for her attack but, her arms were quivering and her fingers had already started to lose grip.

She continued to stand there frozen, her breathing tightened into tiny breaths, and the pulsating glow of red along her eyes and body slowly started to diminish.

Her entire body now trembling and her eyes starting to turn a white light color Jenny formed the words, "……..Brad…." and then let her weapon fall to the ground.

She then took a step back, her breathing still short and her body still shaking, Jenny looked around at what she had created and cried, "No……No! What have I done?!"

"What have I become?!" cried Jenny again as she looked at her horribly mangled arms, "Nooooooo!"

Tears poured out from her eyes as she immediately covered her face with her arms, and took flight down the street and into the wilderness ahead.

Exhausted and still hurt, Brad tried to back up on him feet, but his legs gave out too quickly before he could react. And with his body spread along the green grass Brad could only now feel his mind beginning to quiet down and his vision already being clouded with darkness.

**Some Hours Later,**

Brad could then feel air running through his lungs again, and as his vision began to clear through, he leaned himself forwards and gave his head a few shakes.

Having finally woken up, Brad was surprised to find himself on a large couch with a few blankets draped over his legs.

Shaking his head once more, Brad reached up and began to scratch his skull. _Whoa...what happened...Jeez, all I remember is..._

"Jenny!" said Brad as he immediately froze in place.

"Hey Brad, your up!" cheered Tuck as he ran into the room with a few empty plates and a half a glass of milk, "You hadn't gotten up for a while so I thought I nibble a bit on your…"

"Tuck," interrupted Brad as he reached out and grabbed hold of his brother, "are you and Ms. Wakeman okay, what happened to Jenny?!"

"Oh," simply replied Tuck as he set the tray down on a tiny table and continued, "Ms. Wakeman and I are just fine really. She and I took you into her house here. You looked pretty beaten up Brad, take it from me when I say you should be taking it easy."

Brad just rolled his eyes slightly and asked again, "But what about Jenny there Tuck, do you know what happened to her?"

Tuck honestly replied with a shake of his head and said, "I dunno Brad, Ms. Wakeman says Jenny disappeared into the woods or something."

Sinking his head down and then letting out a depressed sigh, Tuck seemed at a loss as to what to say for what he himself obviously knew that went between his older brother and Jenny.

Having yet to find anything to provide comfort for worried Brad, Tuck was all of a sudden confused to see his brother's feet being set upon the floor in front of him.

Looking up Tuck instantly said, "Hey, where are you going?"

Brad slowly stood up with one hands on his back and the other on the armrest of the couch. Slugging away a minor groan he answered, "I'm going to find Jenny."

Tuck attempt to push his brother back onto the couch and failed due to a few obvious reasons, but surprisingly the thing that stopped Brad was Ms. Wakeman who added, "Don't event think it Bradley!"

Clicking on one of the larger lights in the living room, she moved her way to Bradley, and with the tiniest nudge to his chest, Brad fell back into the comforting softness of the blue piece of furniture.

Brad looked up at the angered scientist and not even having the chance to reply back she went on, "Now listen here mister, you already encountered some serious heavy injuries and heavens knows what else so don't you even think that you're going any but here tonight!"

"But….shouldn't we…" tried to add Brad.

Ms. Wakeman put one her hands in front of Brad's face to silence him just for at least another couple of moments so she could try to explain the situation.

"I know how much you wish to get have XJ-Nein back here with us Bradley, but you also need to realize that your not the only one that wishes for this. It's just as hard as for you as it is for Tuck here and as it would be for me." explained Ms. Wakeman with a hurt look all along her face.

"But……." replied Brad again.

Moving her hand up again in front oh his face, Ms. Wakeman waited for Brad to stop and she then went on again, "We're just going to have to wait till morning before we can do anything Bradley. We all need to rest and some time to think."

"Bu…." commented Brad.

Ms. Wakeman just glared at Bradley this time and stated in an annoyed tone, "What did I just say?"

The reply was a simple gulp and kept his mouth shut.

Brad looked upon everyone in the room, the last thing he needed to do now was to cause more dread in this already unfortunate day.

After a letting out a small sigh, Ms. Wakeman patted Bradley on his blanket covered legs and said, "I'll go get some more of my medical supplies."

Tuck turned to his older brother and watched him as he slowly began to lower his head and reply to Jenny's mom, "Sure."

**Much Later Through the Night, **

"I got to make, I just got to!" pleaded Tuck as he fled through the almost infinite length of hallways with his hands in between his legs.

Reaching sanctuary, Tuck quickly swung the door closed behind him. After a small courtesy flush that followed 30 seconds after, Tuck strutted his way out the washroom and said in cool tone, "Aaaaahhhhhhh, now that's what I call relief."

Now sneaking through the halls again back to his guest room, Tuck just couldn't help but check to see how Brad was doing in his bed below. Quietly as he could make his way down the stairs, Tuck then sped over to the couch in the living and was shocked to see what was before him.

The couch was empty, with only the pillow and the few blankets left there, Brad was no where in sight. Before he thought to check any other part of the house, Tuck shifted his head to the window instead and saw his house across the street with the lights on.

**Meanwhile at Brad's House,**

Just as Brad finished stacking a few more miscellaneous items near the doorway he was stopped in his tracks when he heard his brother's voice behind him go, "What are you doing?"

"Tuck, what are you doing up this late?" answered Brad as he spun around to his younger brother who was still in his blue cowboy pajamas.

Tuck just raised an eyebrow and said, "I was wondering the same thing Brad."

A brief amount of silence went through the room before Brad finally caved in and continued, "I'm going to go find Jenny."

"Brad," said Tuck as he watched his brother continue to ready his supplies, "you heard what Jenny's mom said, we all have to wait till morning before we storm off somewhere."

"And what about Jenny," commented Brad as he turned again towards his brother with a concerned look on his face, "How do you think Jenny feels right now Tuck? I can bet you anything when I say that she feels lost, scared, and alone at what happened to her today. I don't know about you Tuck, but I'm not waiting another minute to go find her."

Having readied his pack, Brad zipped the final zipper, and threw the heavy bag over his shoulders and began to make his way to door when his brother yelled, "Brad stop!"

Brad did stop, but refusing to turn around he replied, "I'm not going to stay Tuck and you know that."

"I know that," added Tuck as ran in front of his brother with his arm in the air, "but do you really think your ready to go out in the wilderness with your pack of whatever?!"

"Er……." commented Brad.

"You got to have flashlights," started Tuck as he began to count with his fingers, "matches, a first aid kit, a compass, and tons of other stuff. Tell me my dear older brother that you did intend to pack those things."

"Ummm…. (nervous smile) yeah….." answered Brad as he took a quick look at all the rather useless materials he had rushed to throw in his pack.

Tuck just crossed his arm and shook his head before he continued, "Wait here."

Just as Brad had finished setting down his pack on the floor, he saw his brother run down the battered stairs carrying an overstuffed dull green covered backpack that looked to have seen better days.

Strapping the his new survival pack onto his back, Brad looked to his brother and said, "I don't know what's more off here, the fact that you actually know what your doing and that you were able to find something in the house that wasn't smashed.

"Oh," said Tuck as he started to scratch an itch on his pajama pants, "Jenny destroyed yours, mom and dads room, she never touched mine."

Brad stared blankly at Tuck for a few more moments before he answered, "Well I'm off Tuck, and thanks for all the help."

"Hey no problem Brad," commented Tuck with a thumb up, "just watched out for spiders and other nasty things like the out there."

"Wait," paused Brad just as he stopped at the door again, "what about Ms. Wakeman?"

"No need to worry Brad," replied Tuck with a confident smile on his face, "I'll make sure to keep an eye on her."

Brad let out a brief laugh and said to his brother, "Sure Tuck, I'll be back as soon as I can with Jenny."

Taking full speeds, Brad flew through the front door and remembering which way he saw Jenny took off, he did a full right turn and disappeared into the night.

As he ran past streetlamp over streetlamp, his only thoughts were that of Jenny and her well being.

Finally making his way to the end of street where it began to curve did he make out a number of huge footprints that lead into the woods ahead.

Taking one last look at his own house that was way behind him, and then at the last streetlamp covering the road, Brad turned on a yellow flashlight, looked at his path ahead and said, "Don't worry Jenny, I'm coming."

**End Chapter 2**

Oh yeah! Well there ya are everybody, chapter 2 done an finished. You can bet your can that I'ze already starting on the next chapter. Let me know howz I'ze did with this one and catch you'se all again next update!


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